Dr Rama Venkatasawmy

Career Summary

Biography

Dr Rama Venkatasawmy is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Communication and Media. He currently teaches in the Bachelor of Communication program. He is the recipient of a ‘Vice-Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning’. He previously taught film/television production courses in the Mass Communication program at Curtin University’s Malaysian campus where he co-designed the Borneo Studies major and was also the founding Head of the Department of Mass Communication.

He has also taught at Murdoch University in Australia and at the University of Mauritius. He has additionally worked as a copywriter in the advertising industry, as well as undertaken media production-related consultancies for various public and private organizations and institutions internationally. He has presented papers at various conferences and in 2010 he was co-Chair of the 10th biennial Borneo Research Council International Conference. He is currently a member of the Scientific Board of the Communication and Media Research Center (http://ccmrc.eu/scientific-board/) as well as an Editorial and Review Board Member for Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (online).

His multi-disciplinary research and publications have so far addressed Australian cinema, Hollywood cinema and Borneo indigenous cultures. He is the author of The Digitization of Cinematic Visual Effects: Hollywood’s Coming of Age (available at https://rowman.com/ISBN/978-0-7391-7622-1) and co-author of Sarawakiana series –The Traditional Kayan Wedding: Pelah Hawa (available at http://www.pustaka-sarawak.com/Pustaka-Sarawak/Sarawakiana/pelahhawa/about_authors.html).

Research ExpertiseDr Rama Venkatasawmy's early research publications related specifically to Australian cinema and culture, as a result of writing an Honours thesis on Australian cinema as well as teaching an undergraduate Australian cinema course. As a postgraduate, his research shifted to film history and theory, especially in the context of Hollywood cinema, while addressing the digitization of visual effects and of filmmaking. And during some years spent in Borneo, he additionally developed an anthropologically-oriented interest in indigenous cultural heritage and preservation. While maintaining his earlier research interests, Dr Rama Venkatasawmy has more recently been looking into certain aspects of communication and media in the Australian and Asian contexts.

Teaching ExpertiseThe University of Newcastle is the fourth institution of higher education at which Dr. Rama Venkatasawmy is teaching in a Communication program. Courses that he has taught over the years at various university campuses include: Communication, Creativity and Cultural Production Media, Law, Ethics Introduction to Professional Writing Introduction to Communication Theory Documentary Workshop History of Screen Language Introduction to Media & Communication Studies Production – Corporate Documentary Screenwriting – Corporate Documentary Screen Production Techniques Australian Cinema Television & Popular Culture Political and Sociological Theories of the Media

Administrative ExpertiseDr Rama Venkatasawmy established and was the founding head of the Department of Mass Communication at the Malaysian campus of Curtin University of Technology where he taught for many years prior to joining The University of Newcastle. That position required the coordination and management of an undergraduate and a pre-university communication program as well as of staff and other resources involved in the teaching of these programs.

Qualifications

Master of Educational Studies, University of Newcastle

Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies), Murdoch University

Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies)(Honours), Murdoch University

PhD, Murdoch University

Keywords

Australian Cinema

Communication Studies

Cultural Studies

Film & Television Production

Film History

Film Studies

Film Theory

Hollywood Cinema

Indigenous Cultures of Borneo

Media & Communication Theory

Media Studies

Languages

African Languages, nec (Fluent)

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

190201

Cinema Studies

20

200199

Communication and Media Studies not elsewhere classified

50

190299

Film, Television and Digital Media not elsewhere classified

30

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Title

Organisation / Department

Lecturer

University of NewcastleUoN Singapore OperationAustralia

Academic appointment

Dates

Title

Organisation / Department

1/01/2014 -

Membership - Communication and Media Research Group at The University of Newcastle

Communication and Media Research Group at The University of NewcastleAustralia